Over the years, Monolith Soft and its affiliates have taken part in numerous interviews. It can be quite hard to remember who said what and when during a discussion. The Xenogears/Xenosaga study guide is a great place to get some of the older interviews, but it is also far from complete and lacks anything post-Saga. Although there are many better ways of going about this, I don’t have the skill or resources to do it in such ways, so I have decided to write up an ever-expanding article of a list of interviews from over the years, divided by series, going in order from newest to oldest, and also having a brief description of some of the key points of the interview to refresh your memory without having to click and read everything. This is a very incomplete list, so bear with me as I update it constantly.
Xenoblade
Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Description: Most popular character in Japan is Pyra, Torna improvements were influenced by feedback to the main game
Description: XB2 sales break internal expectations all around
Nintendolife Interview (September 20th, 2018)
Description: how blade names were changed in localization, why many of the blades ended up being “attractive women”, Takahashi’s original plan for the ending to XB2
Xenoblade 2 OST Interview (May 23rd, 2018)
Description: Wanting to make the next game “violet and erotic and heavy”, Kojima keen on making an X2
Description: Takahashi’s willingness to complete Gears Episode 6 in some form, getting bored of development, stylistic changes from previous games to XB2
Production notes #6(ish) (March 2nd, 2018, translation to be posted on this website soon)
Description: Why it’s called KOS-MOS Re:
Production notes #4 (November 27th, 2017, translation to be posted on this website soon)
Description: Mitsuda was asked to work on the music for XB2 on December 9th, 2014
Production notes #2 (November 17th, 2017, Translation to be posted on this website soon)
Description: Takeda likes chapter 4, the screenwriting process involved Takahashi having a foundational plot outline, then Takeda wrote the even-numbered chapters, while Hyodo wrote the odd-numbered chapters, and Takahashi himself contributed to the writing and all three were put together to form the final script
Gameinformer Interview (November 7th, 2017)
Description: Promoting XB2 as story-driven, saying that there won’t be obvious nods to XB1 but also saying you will know why it’s called XB2 by the end of the game, not ruling out Xenosaga/gears references
Why Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Has a Character Designed by Tetsuya Nomura (July 7 2017)
Description: Takahashi’s only recorded mention of Pyra’s “interesting-shaped crystal”, how Nomura ended up designing some blades
A Peek Inside The Mind of Xenoblade Dev’s Legendary Leader (June 23rd, 2017)
Description: Speaking a bit more to the recent “Xeno” moniker interpretation, Takahashi likes FPS’
Gamekult interview (June 22nd, 2017, French)
Description (from translations): Takahashi open to the idea of finishing Xenosaga if he was financed to do so (a bit tongue and cheek IMO)
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Nintendo Treehouse Live E3 Presentation (June 2017)
Description: Meaning of Xeno to Takahashi as of 2017
Xenoblade Chronicles X
Xenoblade Chronicles X: What Tetsuya Takahashi Told Us (December 16, 2015)
Description: X was deliberate in distancing from philosophical themes and instead focused on being a foundation for future games, Says he gets bored easily, and says the “Xeno” prefix is just an indication that it is a Tetsuya Takahashi production.
Tetsuya Takahashi Talks Xenoblade Chronicles X (December 4th, 2015)
Description: Eagerness to write a story-driven game for the next XB game
Takahashi’s castle: An RPG master’s journey from Final Fantasy to Xenoblade (November 29th, 2015)
Description: Eagerness to continue making games even as he hits 50
Monolith Soft And Making RPGs for Everyone
Description: Toying with the idea of a future Xeno game
Xenoblade’s Director Talks Witcher 3, Zelda Wii U and His Favorite RPGs (June 24, 2015)
Description: Why Los Angeles was chosen, X was going to have multiple planets to explore at one point
Iwata Asks: Xenoblade Chronicles X (originally published around March 2015)
Description: The midway construction to add avatars to the game, why it’s called Xenoblade Cross
Xenoblade Chronicles
Interview: Inside The Development of Xenoblade Chronicles 3D
Description: Naked Shulk alt was Masahiro Sakurai’s idea
Iwata Asks: Xenoblade Chronicles 3D (Not sure)
Description: difficulties in development after the “failure” of Saga, some influences on Takahashi from his childhood
Iwata Asks: Xenoblade Chronicles (Not sure)
Description: removing things from the ending of the game that required “previous knowledge”, the transition from Namco to Nintendo
Xenosaga
Episode 3
Soraya Saga on Xenogears and Xenosaga (June 11, 2010)
Description: “Takahashi and I originally submittited” the Xenogears script, thoughts on the relationship between Xeno games
Xenosaga I・II
Xenosaga I-II DS Interview (2006)
Description: The beginning of Takeda’s relationship with Takahashi
The study guide is so comprehensive about Saga, anything I write here would merely be linking/reproducing what the study guide has already written.
Episode 2
Episode 1
Xenogears
Xenogears 20th-Anniversary Concert Pamphlet (April 7th, 2018)
Description: How “Flight” was misused by Kato, The switch from FF7 to Xenogears, hardships in development as it got closer to release, Tanaka commenting on the character designs he did
The Men Who Made Xenogears: Interview with Xenogears Staff (February 20th, 1998)
Description: A bunch of cut ideas that didn’t make it, mech design, the development process
Description: English spelling of characters, Emeralda’s last name, Ramsus joining the party
Mira 